A wonderful thing bubbled up from the deep blue sea this summer: an invitation for an ocean residency and artwork commission at Patina Maldives, an eco-resort with primary mission of functional sustainability and an art collection that includes a commissioned Skyscape architecture by renowned artist James Turrell. The Maldives is a place that has long been on my mind ever since I learned it was the lowest lying country on earth and would be ‘ground zero’ for sea level rise

My art uses plastic recovered from beaches around the world to understand how our consumer society is transforming the ocean Pam Longobardi, Georgia State University I am obsessed with plastic objects. I harvest them from the ocean for the stories they hold and to mitigate their ability to harm. Each object has the potential to be a message from the sea – a poem, a cipher, a metaphor, a warning. My work collecting and photographing ocean plastic and turning it into